Landing at Burbank Airport always feels like stepping back in time. No jetways here — just a long ramp to the tarmac, painted lines and a gate built 80 years ago. It’s Casablanca with carry-ons. Humphrey Bogart could have met us at the door.
Old. That’s the theme. I’m old. So are many of us. Boomers, they call us. We’re the sons and daughters of the Greatest Generation. The youthful me once flew out of this airport at 30. It seemed old then.
Now we’re both aging out together.
Us boomers are a bulge in the system — 80 million strong, marching into our 70s, 80s, and beyond. Policy makers, take note: How are we going to care for our elders?
Carrie and I had just returned from visiting our daughter and 16-month-old granddaughter, Izzy — a walking, babbling bundle of life. Coming off the 737 into timeworn Burbank, the juxtaposition hit hard. The beginning and end of life. All in one flight.
Back home, reality landed with a thud. Carrie’s 94-year-old father, who suffers from dementia, lives at home under 24/7 care. It’s expensive — so I was writing Carrie’s brother to talk options. While mid-draft, a text popped up: My son’s mother-in-law, also battling dementia, had fallen and was in hospice. Headed for morphine and we know where that goes.
I’m 69. Holding a bouncing baby in one hand and staring down my own encroaching demise on the other. That walk across the Burbank tarmac brought it all viscerally home: We’re all aging out.
California’s aging faster than most. Just look at our past senators! Over 70, 80 is everywhere. So how do we care for this giant cohort when they’re no longer able themselves? And who can afford it?
Back when Burbank Airport was merely outdated, families managed elder care differently. Immigrants — often undocumented — were hired for in-home care. They got room, board, and wages far better than what they’d earn at home. Families got loving care. Caregivers built lives. It was off the books, sure — but it worked.
One friend of mine hired a caregiver 40 years ago. She spoke no English, but quickly became family. Today, she’s a citizen, owns two homes, and still joins my friend’s family for Sunday dinners. Europe has au pairs. We had this.
That all ended in 2014 when California rewrote its labor laws, effectively killing off affordable live-in care. Today, legal 24/7 in-home care requires three rotating caregivers, plus payroll taxes, workers’ comp and insurance. The cost? Around $250,000 a year. Use an agency? Try $300,000. Who can afford this? Like Burbank airport, facing a wrecking ball.
Other options? Small group homes run $7,000 to $10,000 a month. Assisted living? That’s $10,000 to $12,000. Memory care? More. Any way you slice it, boomers are staring down a financial death march. One diagnosis, one fall, and a lifetime of savings can vanish.
And we all know this. Politicians know it. Yet instead of easing the burden, California tightens the screws. Wage laws that choke families. Immigration policies that drive caregivers underground. Enforcement that hauls them away. Meanwhile, corporate care homes rake it in — bursting at the seams, flush with clients, flush with profits.
Their lobbyists? Also, likely flush. We’ve created a legal funnel that forces families into institutional care and financial distress. The home-care model? All but outlawed for working- and middle-class families.
It’s no wonder seniors flee California. Cash out the house and retire in Arizona or Idaho. Hope the kids visit a few times before they hit dirt.
We need policy with compassion. Yes, protect workers — but don’t pretend one size fits all. We could revise immigration laws to allow a new generation of legal, loving caregivers. We could offer families tax credits for in-home care. We could let people age where they want — at home, not in a facility owned by a hedge fund.
Otherwise? The next tent cities won’t just be full of the addicted or jobless. It’ll be tents filled with the old and confused, sleeping in lawn chairs, waiting for someone to remember them. And no one wants to live — or die — like that.
Our aged deserve better. They deserve dignity, not bankruptcy. They deserve a system that works.
Burbank Airport is scheduled to be bulldozed and replaced with something shiny and new. I’ll be replaced too — by Izzy, and following generations. You will, too. And while we’re still here, I’d like to believe we could make the end part as kind as the beginning.
We owe that to the ones who raised us. And to the ones we’re raising now.
Gary Horton’s “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board.
